Wednesday 13th February

Blue Tit house hunting

A bit of a landmark moment occurred last weekend when the first blue tit (that I have seen anyway) undertook a fairly detailed viewing of the nesting box on the side of the summer house. So far there hasn't been a second viewing but it's a step in the right direction. Robins are starting to become tuneful as another sign of the approach of Spring. A red kite flew straight over the garden yesterday as well just after I had got of the bus around 4.20 pm. I've also seen goldfinches when walking to the bus stop.

Last Wednesday I was out on a bike ride and saw three or four bullfinches along the cycle track just west of Rowland's Gill and as good a view as I've had of a jay, plus a couple of grey squirrels and a buzzard and a kestrel later on.  The kestrel was actually hovering low over the left-hand side of the road as I was approaching Whittonstall.  For a moment, I thought it was going to let me ride straight underneath it.

This was all largely eclipsed by an excellent trip to the Big Waters reserve with the Nature Watchers group

Iceland Gull

this Monday.  There were a number of bullfinches on the way to the first hide, where a number of ducks and geese were quickly identified, including wigeon, teal, tufted duck, canada and greylag geese.

Gulls aren't really my thing but it was interesting to see a herring gull on a well-frequented island straight in front of us.  One of our more expert members also pointed out an iceland gull that clearly dominated the others. Later a number of lapwing landed there too, giving an excellent display of iridescent plumage in the bright sunlight.

The second hide was even more productive.  A number of reed buntings were passing through the reeds and eating the heads, as were incidentally a couple of blue tits.  A wren also passed through, low down into the reeds.

There was also an area of cut grass with a large number of bird tables and feeders to the rear of the hide, which attracted a very wide variety of visitors after a time, including bullfinch, great tit, blue tit, reed bunting, tree sparrow and yellowhammer.  This was not however where I would have expected to see a water rail, which strutted over the lawn on a couple of occasions and appeared to be relatively tame.

Reed Bunting

Water Rail

Yellowhammer

Both the water rail and the iceland gull were first sightings for me.               

15th June

Minsmere on short break in East Anglia. An incredible visit, in that I sighted virtually every bird I wanted to see in the minimum amount of time.  Bearded tit, the main target appeared within 40 minutes of arriving, along with reed warbler.

I pretty much expected to see an avocet from the East hide but to see one ten yards out immediately on entering staggered me a bit.  Soon I added spoonbill and flamingo along with various others (that actually interested me less!) thanks to the guidance of one of the RSPB staff. These were: black tailed godwit, gadwall and spotted redshank.

I not only heard but saw cetti's warbler on the way to the bittern hide, where marsh harriers were in action. The occasional bittern was on the move and visible in flight. And then a squadron of hobbies moved in with a spectacular display to feed on the pond dragonflies.

I didn't see the little egret but on moving to the last reed hide, clearly heard a water rail.

Not much was happening in the woodland so I decided to return to the north wall to see if I could improve on the bearded tit sighting, and sure enough a male appeared briefly on the very edge of the reeds.

Many of these spots were aided by wardens and experienced watchers nearby, but eleven first sightings on the same outing has to be a bit special.